12 Steps to Whole Foods

Preserving Raw Foods with Natural Probiotics
schedule to pick yours up. This is much less expensive (as well as more nutritious and natural) than buying
homogenized, pasteurized goat’s milk from the rare grocery store that carries it.
Find your local community-supported agriculture groups that will sell you organic local produce such as
cabbage, apples, and even corn that you can pick yourself for free at the end of the harvest. Join all the email
lists of buying co-ops. I am a member of at least six of them locally, including one I run myself for group buys
several times a year. By doing this, in addition to saving money and supporting local agriculture, I have made
quite a few friends who enrich my life and teach me many things. They are experts in herbal remedies, or
gardening, or yeast-free bread making, and they give me a support system for raising a healthy family that I
value tremendously. In fact, I learned about fermenting vegetables, making yogurt, and baking sourdough,
whole-grain breads from people in early co-ops I joined.
Sea salt needed in fermentation is certainly more expensive than refined table salt, but I buy it inexpensively
from a local co-op (this year from the local family-owned Bosch store) in a 25-lb. bag. We should have salt on
hand for emergency supplies anyway, and salt lasts forever, so there’s no concern about it going bad. For
cooking purposes, buy it finely granulated.
If you do not have cold storage in your basement, you can dig a dirt cellar next to your house while it is still
warm, using a wooden lid to lift when you want to remove something. A buried barrel or box can also work,
and you can read more about these options in Eliot Coleman’s Four-Season Harvest. 5 You can store your
fermented vegetables—as well as raw root vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, turnips, and onions—in an
easily built root cellar to last through the winter.
Your Journal Entry
After beginning to use fermented foods, especially after you’ve gone through your first winter, take note of any
health changes you have experienced.
1. After a winter of using fermented foods, note whether you succumbed to viruses and infections less
often than usual (or not at all).
2. When you add fermented foods to any meal, do you have fewer or no digestive disturbances, quick and
easy digestion, and easier sleep?
3. Do you notice any other health benefits?
4. What are your favorite recipes in this chapter?
5. Any other observations during this month?
230 12 Steps to Whole Foods
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw